John P. Tretbar
In New York, Friday's settlement of $75.54 per barrel for light sweet crude was down $1.56 on the day. That's a weekly loss of more than 30 cents despite gains of up to $2 a barrel during the week.
Current prices are $10 lower than a month ago. By lunchtime Monday, Nymex crude was trading below $75 a barrel. London Brent was below $81 a barrel at midday.
The government said U.S. crude inventories rose by nearly 9 million barrels to just over 448 million barrels as of Nov. 17. That's about 1 percent below the five-year average for this time of year, but the highest stockpile total since July.
EIA said domestic crude imports rose to 6.5 million barrels per day. The four-week average is up almost 2 percent over the same four weeks a year ago. U.S. crude production dipped slightly last week, but it was still among the best weeks ever at 13,214,000 barrels per day.
The tally from the Energy Information Administration is 19,000 barrels per day lower than a week ago, and just over 1 million barrels per day higher than the same week a year ago. Output has exceeded 13.2 million barrels per day for each of the last seven weeks.
Monthly production reports in Kansas offer a mixed comparison to last year, which was the second-worst, and in some counties the worst, on record.
Statewide output in July was down from June. The one-month and cumulative tally are both down from last year. Records maintained by the Kansas Geological Survey show a continuing downward trend-line from the state's leading producer Ellis County.
Last year's annual total in Ellis County was the worst ever. July output is up from June but down from a year ago. Last year's output in Barton County topped the previous two years but had not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, according to KGS. Production in Barton County in July was down from June but up from July of last year.
Russell County's output through July was up from a year ago, but July production was down from a month earlier. Stafford County production was down from June and well below a year ago.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 1,196 new wells spudded in Kansas so far this year, which is down more than 22 percent from a year ago. Total footage is down more than 25 percent.
There are 18 new drilling permits on file. The year-to-date total of 1,189 new drilling locations lags behind last year by 22 percent. Operators completed 26 wells last week. That includes one in Ellis County out of 21 west of Wichita.
Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 1,551 completed wells so far this year, up by 98 wells from a year ago. Rig Counts are up across the country and across the state. The Kansas Rig Count from Independent Oil & Gas Service is up 10 percent from a week ago, with 19 active drilling rigs in eastern Kansas, up two, and 24 west of Wichita, which is also up two. That count is up 10.3 percent from last week and 22 percent higher than a month ago, but 17.3 percent lower than the same week last year.
The weekly Rotary Rig Count from Baker Hughes shows 622 active rigs nationwide, up three gas rigs. The count in Louisiana was up two rigs. Texas was up one rig, while Colorado and New Mexico were each down one.
Operators in the No. 3 crude-producing state increased output by more than 4 percent in September. The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources reported an average output of 1.28 million barrels per day, up by more than 54,000 barrels per day from August. The state's operators also set new records for the second month in a row for both natural gas production and the gas-capture rate at oil wells.